Master of Science in Engineering Smart Systems with Optional Placement Year

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Designed for anyone with a passion for computer-generated content, our BSc (Hons) Computer Animation and Visual Effects degree will help you learn and hone the skills needed to launch a career in an incredibly exciting industry.

We take a learning by doing approach on this course. So, as well as expert guidance and support, you’ll have access to a fully equipped computer animation suite, with dedicated green screen room, lighting rigs and motion capture equipment. In other words, you’ll have everything you need to learn how to create your own assets for integration with virtual environments and live-action footage to produce complex visual effects.

You’ll learn about creating, rigging and animating 3D models, developing advanced particle effects such as fire, smoke and moving liquids, and about compositing and integration methods. And most importantly, at all stages you’ll have the creative freedom to develop your own ideas and concepts right through to the finished article.

Teamwork is at the heart of this industry and you’ll have plenty of opportunity for team-based study to help prepare you for the world of work. You’ll be perfectly poised to enter this rapidly expanding and exciting digital sector.

Our computer animation and visual effects degree also provides the option of spending an extra year expanding your horizons by working on a placement in industry.

Placement options
The full-time four-year placement route provides the opportunity to go on a placement for at least 36 weeks, where you’ll get a taste of professional life. Completing a placement not only develops your core skills and experience, but also shows employers that you’re ready to get to work. Graduate employers report that students who have been on placements tend to be well organised and better able to apply their skills in a structured way.

Study geography at Manchester Met and you’ll begin with a good grounding in earth surface processes and landform development alongside society, culture, place and space. With a wide range of options in the later years of your geography degree, you can explore the issues and areas that interest you most.

While we have excellent teaching facilities on campus, we know that some of the most powerful lessons are learned outside the classroom. So, you’ll have ample opportunity to get involved in fieldwork trips around the UK and overseas, helping you develop and refine your practical skills. And, if you take the four-year route, you can spend a year either working on a placement or studying overseas before returning for your final year.

Along the way, you’ll explore key theories and concepts – and how they apply to geographical phenomena – while developing practical skills and techniques through field and laboratory work.

Placement options

• All of our geography degrees have been designed to be flexible. You can opt for the four-year placement degree route and spend Year 3 on a professional placement with a degree-related organisation.

The world of business is always evolving – adapting to new technology, moving with geopolitical events and reacting to the shifting financial climate. But there is one constant: people. Growth, change, success – it’s only possible with a well-managed workforce, no matter what the industry or sector.

By focusing on the human element of effective business leadership, this is a course that offers vital transferrable skills, providing the first steps of a range of career paths. You’ll leave us equipped to pursue roles across a vast range of sectors in a wide variety of disciplines.

We’ve built an impressive network with industry experts and major employers – sharing understanding and opportunity. For us, it means keeping our expertise at the cutting edge of business and human resource management. For you, it means learning from leading professionals from organizations like PwC and AJ Bell. Plus, if you opt for a third-year placement, it’s a network that can open doors to the sort of employers where you can turn classroom theory into workplace practice.

Study abroad
Instead of a placement, you'll have the opportunity to spend up to a year overseas, studying with one of our partner institutions across Europe, or beyond. Go abroad in the third year of your degree, and you’ll not only learn about other cultures, improve your language skills and discover more about yourself – you’ll also boost your career prospects. Having first-hand knowledge of another country’s cultures and traditions can take you far in a range of careers. And, by going abroad you’ll also demonstrate the kind of independent spirit and adaptability that many employers want.

To survive, thrive and succeed in business, it’s not only about managing people, developing strategies and driving performance within the organisation. It’s also about understanding and engaging the market – identifying your position in the competitive landscape, developing an offering that meets demand and communicating with your target audience effectively.

With this business and marketing degree, you’ll delve into business operations, looking at how some of the world’s most successful organisations manage finances, lead staff and harness technology, as well as learning about the key issues in business today – from sustainable development to ethics in a global environment.

It’s a course that’s designed to help you prepare for the workplace, so we don’t limit your learning to the classroom or lecture theatre. Once you’ve discovered and discussed the theories in lectures and seminars, you’ll have the chance to turn ideas into action. We run various business and enterprise competitions that provide skill-building, CV-boosting experience. You will also have the option of spending a year on a placement, building on your skills in a professional environment.

As such, you’ll leave us with a blend of business understanding and marketing intellect. It’s a powerful mix. Whether you see yourself running a start-up, getting onto the fast-track to senior management or making waves in an agency environment, our BA (Hons) Business and Marketing can help you pave the way.

Placement options
Our BA (Hons) Business and Marketing degree offers the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. It not only gives you the opportunity to develop your core skills and learn about how a business really operates in your industry, but also shows employers that you’re ready to get to work.

The fashion industry is constantly evolving and now more than ever is undergoing extreme transformative change. A new generation of consumers are rallying against the fast-fashion ethos and are instead favouring a more cyclical approach to consumption and production. Cultural shifts are also affecting the industry, with brands having to re-evaluate their cultural purpose, identity and the way in which they communicate to the consumer to ensure greater transparency and authenticity.

This program is aimed at students who want to gain experience of both the strategic and creative aspects of fashion marketing. Whilst studying on MSc International Fashion Marketing, students will produce innovative marketing campaigns for fashion brands through a variety of different communications media, while supporting their strategic and creative process with fundamental theoretical knowledge. They will also learn how to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing global market and forge a successful career in the creative and cultural industries.

With a strong emphasis on employability and social responsibility, this course will equip its students with a mastery of the key skills required to help evolve the fashion system to become more ethically conscious, socially progressive and environmentally sustainable.

At the heart of the Manchester Writing School are our master's programs in Creative Writing, available to study on campus in Manchester and also from anywhere in the world via online distance learning.

On our Master of Arts (MA) Creative Writing program, you will explore and practice techniques and styles of modern and contemporary writing and apply these through the development of your own creative work. You will undertake a taught element blending writing workshops with reading units and an elective, and then complete your studies through submission of an extended piece of writing from a proposed full-length book or script.

You will specialise in one of the following routes: Novel (including Short Fiction), Poetry, Writing for Children & Young Adults, Scriptwriting (for stage, screen or radio) or Creative Non-Fiction.

Photography offers an exciting range of career paths and specialisms and this course provides the perfect starting point for them.

You will have the opportunity to discover and push the boundaries of current practices and approaches. You’ll discover how photography can be used to tell powerful stories and communicate your personal interests within cultural and industry contexts. You will also have an opportunity to explore a wide range of different subject areas such as fashion, documentary, editorial and commercial photography. Throughout the course you will have the chance to experiment in a purpose-built studio, darkroom and digital facilities.

As a Photography student you will be part of the broad, dynamic creative community at the School of Digital Arts. As such, you will have units and classes taught across all our courses, with the chance to collaborate on projects with animators, sound designers, games developers and a range of other media-focused students. It’s an approach designed to mirror the cross-disciplinary practices you’ll find in the professional world, while giving you the chance to explore the creative directions that interest you most. Matching that professional approach, our purpose-built school provides professional-standard tools – a brand new creative playground for producing photographic work at the cutting edge of emerging digital technologies. It’s a school and a course designed to give you the vital industry and artist networking, technical and creative skills to prepare you for a career in the photographic and related industries.

Manchester offers a fantastic backdrop for it all. Studying here puts the country’s second-largest media and creative sector on your doorstep, with a globally recognised photographic industry and a substantial animation, film and digital/tech sector. At MediaCityUK, there’s a mix of national broadcasters and independent operators, while the city is home to a wide range of major media businesses. Manchester has a dynamic artistic and cultural scene that houses some of the best public and independent museums and galleries in the UK . So, whatever path you want to pursue in photography – or in the wider media, arts and digital tech industries – Manchester offers all sorts of opportunities for building a network, gaining experience and making a great start in your career.

Placement options

SODA Placement Year
As part of your studies with SODA, you will have the chance to take a year working on placement within the industry. During your year, you will spend at least 36 weeks working within an organisation in the industry, developing workplace skills, practical understanding and genuine industry experience.

On our MSc Sport Nutrition course, you’ll examine the evidence surrounding nutrition, performance and health and gain the nutritional and physiological skills needed to work in the field of sport and exercise nutrition.

You’ll study the theory of nutrition, physiology and sports performance, exploring topics ranging from the applied effects of manipulating macronutrients to evaluating the role of fuelling before and during exercise, recovery and body composition manipulation.

You’ll develop practical skills in our on-site laboratories, food and nutrition suite and at specialist sports venues across Greater Manchester, including our Platt Lane sports complex.

Some of the practical assessments you’ll complete include analysing the composition of food and exploring how to help athletes to perform better. You might investigate cardiac capacity and recovery times or consider questions such as whether dietary supplements can affect performance positively or negatively.

To help you practice your skills, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for work placements. We have links with employers across the North West, including professional and amateur sports teams from football to netball.

Our BSc (Hons) Zoology degree offers an interdisciplinary approach for studying the subject. You’ll cover a wide range of different issues and topics, examining the molecular biology, genetics and physiology of animals, while discovering the ways these areas have shaped animal evolution and behaviour and how systems biology brings together these areas.

Whether you pursue areas like animal evolution and behaviour, movement physiology and ecology, the genetics of animal populations, or population biology of tropical animals, you’ll find a practical focus to your studies. You’ll learn a wide range of field, laboratory and analytical skills, which are not only vital for the study of zoology, but will prove invaluable for your future career.

And, while our laboratories and equipment are excellent, we know that there’s no substitute for learning in the field – so you may have the opportunity to take part in field courses and project work in Europe, Africa and South America.

Our zoology degree also provides the option of spending an extra year expanding your horizons, either studying with one of our partner universities overseas, or working on a placement with a business or non-governmental organisation.

Managing teams across a business requires specific skills. On this course, you’ll explore management styles and how to apply them. We’ll also help you identify your own style and hone the skills you need to relate to employees across organisations and cultures.

This course is open to applicants from all subject areas, not just business and management. The field of management is so varied that you can adapt the skills you have learned from your previous studies to shape your future career.

Optional internship year

If you choose to take the optional one-year internship, you’ll do so once you have successfully completed your taught units. The internship takes place over 36-48 weeks – you will be supported by our Placement Office, who have extensive contacts with the industry and over 25 years of experience of helping students to find placements.

The Placement Office advertise a variety of opportunities, supports and advise on the application and recruitment process and continue to support you whilst you are away from the University.